How to study a problem so that you remember it

You read a solved problem. Every line makes sense. You close the book. A week later, a similar problem appears, and you cannot start.

This is very common, and it has a reason. Reading a solution is easy, so it feels like learning. Remembering needs effort, and the effort is what builds memory.

Here are five steps that work.

1. Try before you look

Read the problem and work on it for a few minutes, before you open the solution. Even a wrong attempt helps. It tells your brain what to listen for in the solution.

2. Say what is given and what is asked

Write two short lists. What do I know? What do I want? Many mistakes are made before any calculation, when the question is not clear.

3. Read the solution like a teacher

Do not just follow it. Ask, at each line: why this step, and not another? If you cannot answer, stay on that line.

4. Close it and redo it

This is the most important step. Close the solution and solve the problem again from a blank page. If you get stuck, peek at one line only, then close it again.

5. Change one thing

Change a number, or a condition. What would happen if the mass doubled? If the surface had friction? A problem that you can change is a problem that you understand.

Where the Python box helps

Many problems on StemPy Lab have a Python version. Use it for step 5.

Change mass to $4$ and predict the acceleration before you run. You have just done a "what if" in ten seconds.

A simple routine

• Day 1: do the problem with the steps above.
• Day 3: redo it from a blank page.
• Day 10: redo it once more.

Three short visits are worth more than one long evening. And if you get a problem wrong in a mock test, that is a gift: it shows you what to redo.